Posted on 04/02/2005 3:58:14 AM PST by Pharmboy
WASHINGTON, April 1 - Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg of the Supreme Court embraced the practice of consulting foreign legal decisions on Friday, rejecting the argument from conservatives that United States law should not take international thinking into account.
After a strongly worded dissent in a juvenile death penalty case from Justice Antonin Scalia last month that accused the court of putting too much faith in international opinion, Justice Ginsberg said the United States system should, if anything, consider international law more often.
"Judges in the United States are free to consult all manner of commentary," she said in a speech to several hundred lawyers and scholars here Friday.
She cited several instances when the logic of foreign courts had been applied to help untangle legal questions domestically, and of legislatures and courts abroad adopting United States law.
Fears about relying too heavily on world opinion "should not lead us to abandon the effort to learn what we can from the experience and good thinking foreign sources may convey," Justice Ginsburg told members of the American Society of International Law.
On March 1, the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 that the Constitution forbids executing convicts who committed their crimes before turning 18. The majority opinion reasoned that the United States was increasingly out of step with the world by allowing minors to be executed, saying "the United States now stands alone in a world that has turned its face against the juvenile death penalty."
Justice Scalia lambasted that logic, saying that "like-minded foreigners" should not be given a role in helping interpret the Constitution. House Republicans have introduced a resolution declaring that the "meaning of the Constitution of the United States should not be based on judgments, laws or pronouncements of foreign institutions unless such foreign judgments, laws or pronouncements inform an understanding of the original meaning of the Constitution of the United States."
In her speech, Justice Ginsberg criticized the resolutions in Congress and the spirit in which they were written. "Although I doubt the resolutions will pass this Congress, it is disquieting that they have attracted sizable support," she said.
"The notion that it is improper to look beyond the borders of the United States in grappling with hard questions has a certain kinship to the view that the U.S. Constitution is a document essentially frozen in time as of the date of its ratification," Justice Ginsburg said.
"Even more so today, the United States is subject to the scrutiny of a candid world," she said. "What the United States does, for good or for ill, continues to be watched by the international community, in particular by organizations concerned with the advancement of the rule of law and respect for human dignity."
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice introduced Justice Ginsburg at the event, the first appearance by a sitting secretary of state before the 99-year-old organization in decades. Dr. Rice described Justice Ginsberg as "a great and good friend," adding that they also happened to be neighbors.
I will now consider taking my "Condi in '08" bumper sticker off of the Blazer.
These comments are a direct response to DeLay...The Judiciary is circling the wagons..
They are nothing but a 'pox' on America.
Oh shoot, why not give up and just write a World Constitution. It would be so much easier than all these pesky countries.
Ginsburg should be impeached--and replaced with Judge Judy.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Except the bible, it would seem
Some serious thought needs to go into possible legal avenues to have the hag of the ACLU removed from the bench.
Mark my words, his international tax thing is not the end, but the start of it. And they and their friends will not stop until they created One World Government, in the hands of Kofi and his Korrupt Klan of murderers, tyrants and dictators. One of the first things they need, is for international law to apply everywhere, and their Supreme Court collaborators are hard at work at that.
All kidding aside, this idiot has got to go.
I would say let's start an impeachment drive, but I know that will never happen. Too many anti Constitutionists out there support her stupid logic.
The good news is this: the old fool is just that, an old fool. Hopefully, she will retire soon.
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
This is scary folks.
The arrogance of this little troll of a woman...
Breyer is just as bad.
"Judges in the United States are free to consult all manner of commentary," she said in a speech to several hundred lawyers and scholars here Friday.
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She's admitting she's making it up on the fly. This renders our Constitution largely meaningless. This wicked
woman should have never been confirmed. She took an oath. This is why we must keep the filibuster.IMO
Ginsburg's husband is a major tax law attorney. Save Ross Perot big bucks once upon a time. I'm convinced that the Ginsburg selection for SCOTUS was pay off in part by Clinton to Perot for ensuring 41 went down in flames in the '92 election.
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